Unnatural
by secondbutthole
Summary: MOTHER 3 ANNIVERSARY ; They were chipping away at his humanity and Claus just wasn't sure what to do. They were sick, sick people and he could only watch as he was taken apart only to be put back together again.
It was an odd sensation, being in a dead state. You were aware of everything around you but every sensation that wasn't sight (which didn't matter since only one eye was of use anyway) and hearing was just… Numbed. Since he was at the bottom of the cliff, trying to hobble and eventually crawl his way back home, he knew he was going to die. The impact from the fall was either going to catch up to him, or the blood loss would instead.

But he was kept alive. Tubes were pushed into him, helping him breathe and helping his entire being stay steady. It was confusing, liquids being fed into him but he was just far too weak to ask to go home- to see Lucas or even be in Hinawa's embrace again. Honestly, anything involving speech just seemed too much. Out of the corner of his one working eye, he could see pink-clad men with helmets. Had he been his normal self, he would have laughed upon seeing that the masks were really just modelled after pigs, but the sight left him with feeling exhausted and afraid at once.

"It will all be over soon." Who was that voice? It was low and gravelly and it was unlike anyone he's really heard in Tazmily. And what was going to be over soon? Why were they holding such sharp objects? What was going on-? Where was Flint? Lucas?

And then the procedure started. Again, just a numbing sensation as he was kept awake (anaesthetic hadn't been discovered yet and even then, injuries like this weren't common at all) and the knife cut open into his skin. They were taking things out- one bloodied kidney that they reckoned he could live without, a lung since it "wouldn't matter" anyway, and then they touched on his heart.

It was a slight grasp, but Claus wasn't sure. Maybe the masked men felt sick enough,but they left that in- the only thing that was going to make him even feel slightly human.

A few, more visible changes were made to the ginger child. A chip of some sort was installed into his head, tucked behind tufts of orange hair, and after some tweaking- after weakly shelving memories (or so they'd assumed, it didn't work, Claus could remember his past life which was funny. He played along just so they wouldn't take away what was so precious to him) and an eye was installed, turned on via the chip. He was secretly thankful for having full vision back, but having his arm chopped off immediately after only made him go back to feeling panicked and angry.

What were they doing? And why him?

Soon, a metal arm was placed on there and wired up, switching between something gun-like and back to a normal arm- back and forth, back and forth, just to make sure it was working. Somehow, of all the things that was happening, that was slightly more painful; but it was so numb. Maybe it was an emotional numbness now, because after piece and piece that was taken away and supposedly being restored, the more he was falling away from being human. And then he was done. They'd fixed him up to be… something and it was scary. He didn't outwardly show it at first.

Then, in the first week, he tried to escape. He moved, blindly, towards the direction of Tazmily but of course he was quickly caught. Not wanting them to let on, he lied through his teeth.

"Why did you go?"

To see and hide with his family.

"To explore, sir, and get used to my surroundings.."

He was punished. A moronic idea considering everything felt just so numb but he was whipped and beaten to make sure he knew when he had done wrong. It would have been easy to get used to had it not been breaking him psychologically with each passing punishment.

And it was three years later after all of this training, and all of those punishments and getting used to every little adjustment that he was called into where would be New Pork City.

"Is my toy ready?" A man coughed and wheezed- A man?

A boy.

Claus, terrified of doing wrong, could only get down on one knee and bow low. "Yes, your majesty."

He glanced up in time to catch a wicked grin before his gaze quickly fell again just so he wouldn't be in trouble for 'making eye contact'.

"Perfect."


End file.
